FIRST READING
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge; love your neighbor as yourself. ~Leviticus 19:1–2, 17–18~
Our passage, addressed to Moses, begins, 'Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” This code expands on LEADER TIPS: • We've provided reflections for each reading on the following pages. Read these in advance; they'll give you additional insights for understanding and discussion. • Depending on when your group meets and how much time you have, you may want to read through each reading from the Prayer Journal together before beginning lectio divina. the Ten Commandments and describes the parameters of just relationships amongst the Israelites, as well as between the Israelites and the foreigners that entered their land. Leviticus 19:18 says, “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” It’s understandable that an Israelite would interpret this to mean that although he was to love his neighbor, it was permissible to hate his enemy, as Jesus remarks in Matthew 5:43.
It’s true that the Israelites were told to love foreigners, but only when they became resident aliens in the land of Israel. Those beyond the land were considered to be beyond the reach of the Law. The lack of specificity about how to treat those who weren’t Israelites made this question worth posing to Jesus. “Be perfect,” Jesus says, just as Leviticus said, “Be holy.” That’s the end toward which God has always aimed: our holiness. A clear mark of holiness is love of neighbor, friend, and foreigner.
In this passage, St. Paul says that we are temples and that “if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.” This may at first sound like a threat of revenge against those who make themselves enemies of Christians. But if we compare this passage with 1 Corinthians 6:18-19, we could also suggest that it is a warning to Christians themselves not to desecrate their own bodily temples by sin. In Romans 12:1, Paul calls on Christians to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” In so doing he completes the transference of the temple image to us. As Jesus’s body was both the temple and sacrifice of the New Covenant, so our bodies are both temples and sacrificial offerings as part of our participation in that Covenant.
Talking about bodies being temples and sacrificial offerings might sound like nonsense to the worldly-wise. The world considers terms like “holiness” and “sacrifice” to be virtually meaningless. St. Paul counsels against that kind of worldly calculation. If that is wisdom, he warns, then we’d better be fools for Christ. Believing that Christ is the center and meaning of human history, we’d be foolish not to try to conform ourselves to his example.
In this passage, the connection between the Torah, the Old Law, and the New Law in Christ is even more pronounced. Jesus says five times (the number of books of the Old Law) you have heard the commandment…” and then extends, tightens, or strengthens that law by phrasing it in a new commandment. Jesus is clearly acting as the voice of the Law as had Moses.
If we look at the sources for the commandments of the Old Law that Jesus cites, we see that he's not just quoting Moses. In each case where Jesus is citing the Old Law, he makes reference to a direct command from God himself. The first two references are from the Ten Commandments, but the last three are from the Levitical code. Each of those commands in Leviticus closes with the phrase “I am the Lord” or “I, the Lord, am your God.” By citing and then changing these commands of Yahweh, Jesus is implicitly saying the same thing, “I am the Lord.” Only the Lord could change his law. Matthew thereby shows us that Jesus isn’t merely a new Moses, but the God who spoke through Moses and who has the authority to promulgate a New Law.
As you sit and listen to Jesus as he teaches, you suddenly hear him say, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil.” What? Aren't we supposed to fight against evil in the world? What can this mean? Reflect for a moment on what Jesus himself did when he was arrested and crucified. What does his example mean for you right now, today, in your life?
This is one of Jesus’s hardest teachings. During this week, reread the Gospel and take some time to pray about how this can apply to you and your family. If there is someone you consider an “enemy,” bring that relationship before the Lord and ask to be shown how to demonstrate love to that person.